Think about it: you want to record audio on the move, such as conversations or band rehearsals. You would like to do so in relatively high quality, similar to that of a CD for an untrained ear. You do not want to deal with a large and complex device like a laptop or tablet, and you would like to get several hours of battery life while recording audio. Is there a modern device, sold for less than €250 (mic price and storage media not included), that would fit the bill ?

That's what MDs were best at, in my opinion. Infinitely better recording than tapes, and much more reliable than the few DAPs from Cowon and Archos that would feature some mic/line input. Basically the DAT of the people.

For this reason, and also because magneto-optical drives were awesome, I'll always miss my old MD players. Shame on Sony and Sharp for crippling them with shitty DRM and impossibly buggy data transfer software.